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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Ezra 10:15 - 10:15
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Jonathan the son of Asahel, and Jahaziah the son of Tikvah, indeed opposed this proposal on the part of the community, and were supported in their opposition by two Levites, but without being able to carry it out. This statement is introduced by אַךְ, only, in the form of a qualification to the remark that the whole assembly (Ezr 10:12) made this resolution: nevertheless Jonathan ... stood up against this. For עַל עָמַד, to stand up against, or as elsewhere עַל קוּם, comp. 1Ch 21:1; 2Ch 20:23; Dan 8:25; Dan 11:14. Such also is the view of R. Sal. and Lightf., while older expositors understand it as meaning: only Jonathan ... stood up for this matter, like the steterunt super hoc of the Vulgate, or as the decidedly incorrect explanation of J. H. Mich.: praefecti sunt huic negotio. - Nothing further is known of the four opponents here named. That they did not succeed in this opposition appears from what follows. Ezr 10:16 The children of the captivity, i.e., the returned exiles, did so; i.e., the congregation carried their resolve into execution. And Ezra the priest, and men, heads of houses according to their houses, - i.e., so that each house was represented by its head, - were separated, i.e., chosen to conduct the investigation. The ו copulative before אֲנָשִׁים has been lost, as asyndeton seeming in this case inadmissible. Bertheau, on the contrary, unnecessarily changes וַיִבָּֽרְלוּ into לֹו וַיַּבְדֵל after 1 Esdras 9:16. “And they all by names,” comp. Ezr 8:20. וַיֵּשְׁבוּ, and they held a sitting (i.e., their first sitting) on the first day of the tenth month, and therefore only ten days after the assembly just spoken of. הַדָּבָר לְדַרְיֹושׁ, to inquire into the matter. It is impossible in Hebrew to form דַּרְיֹושׁ from דָּרַשׁ, and this word can only arise from דְּרֹושׁ, as Ewald, §239, a, note, Olshausen, Lehrb. d. hebr. Spr. p. 150, and Böttcher, ausf. Lehrb. der hebr. Spr. i. 1, p. 162, note, unanimously agree.